Justice delays health law's birth control mandate

5:44 PM, January 1, 2014

A view of the U.S. Supreme Court seen from the top of the U.S. Capitol dome. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has blocked a stipulation in the new health care reform law that requires some religion-affiliated organizations to provide insurance that includes birth control. / Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

By Jesse J. Holland

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Only hours before the law was to take effect Wednesday, a U.S. Supreme Court justice blocked implementation of part of President Barack Obama’s health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control coverage.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision came after an effort by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the country. Those groups had rushed to the federal courts to stop the start of portions of the Affordable Care Act.

Sotomayor acted on a request from an organization of Catholic nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged. She gave government officials until 10 a.m. Friday to respond to her order. The Supreme Court already has decided to rule on whether businesses may use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees.

The health care law requires employers to provide insurance that covers a range of preventive care, free of charge, including contraception. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of contraceptives. That was not acceptable, said the nuns’ lawyer, Mark L. Rienzi.

The Obama administration crafted a compromise, or accommodation, that attempted to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. The law requires insurers or the health plan’s outside administrator to pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them.

But for that to work, the nuns would have to sign a form authorizing their insurance company to provide contraceptive coverage, which would still violate their beliefs, Rienzi said.

In a statement Tuesday night, Rienzi said he was delighted by Sotomayor’s order. “The government has lots of ways to deliver contraceptives to people,” he said. “It doesn’t need to force nuns to participate.”

The White House on Wednesday issued a statement saying that the administration is confident that its rules “strike the balance of providing women with free contraceptive coverage while preventing nonprofit religious organizations with religious objections to contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage.”